Fiscally Conservative, Socially Tolerant

people can only end in another, freedom on one axis and per- the back of the private economy: and more rapid, disaster. sonal freedom on the other. deregulation, taxes nearly down The original Nolan chart had to zero, massive privatization, the Good Guys, the libertarians, the gold standard, the works. in the upper-right hand diagon- But ”fiscally conservative” is a ”Fiscally Conser- al corner, and the Bad Guys, horse of a very different color. vative, Socially ”authoritarians” in personal It simply means: a desire to cut and economic life, in the lower- the rate of increase of the govern- Tolerant” left diagonal corner. ment budget to a respectable by M.N.R. Nolan tried unsuccessfully to amount. Notice that absence of popularize an LP logo as an ar- government intervention, or tax ”Fiscally conservative, so- row going upward and to the slashing, or privatization, has cially tolerant” has become the right, symbolizing a thrust to- all but gone by the board; the favorite mantra of Left-liber- ward liberty on both fronts, but slogan only calls for a certain tarianism, from Cat0 Institute critics pointed out that the logo modesty in swelling government types to libertarian Republicans. had something of the look, spending or the ranks of the But what exactly does this slogan either of an obscure sex cult, or bureaucracy. Weak tea indeed. mean and where does it come of some discredited ultra-right- And, after all, in this age of from? If you can excuse the wing political group in the Mittel- enormous, $400 billion, annual expression, let us proceed to Europa of the 1930s. deficits, everyone has to be a deconstruct this text. Bad ideas never completely little bit fiscally conservative, Libertarian politics acquired die, however, and the Nolan even Bill Clinton. This is hardly modern form when a determin- Chart was later a test of anyone, ed isolationist group took con- resurrected by much less of a trol of the Libertarian Party and Marshall Fritz of staunch conser- platform at its New York con- the Advocates for vativellibertarian. vention of 1975, and nominated Self-Government, But “socially the LP’s first nationwide can- and popularized tolerant” is even didate for President in 1976, in Fritz’s chart more defective as Virginia attorney Roger Lea and ”World ’s a criterion for a MacBride. The victorious LPers Shortest Political Good Guy politi- capsulized their platform, then Quiz.” Fritz es- cian. In fact, it is a and since, in three parts: ”lais- sentially moved far cry from civil sez-faire in economics (economic the Nolan chart libertarian. For freedom), civil liberties (personal 45 degrees to the “personal free- freedom), and non-interven- left, so that the dom” or “civil tionist in foreign policy.” In Good Guys came libertarian” is a short; a determined opposition out at the top of a meaningful, let to government interference in diamond, with alone worthy, the economy, in personal life, the Bad Guys on political position. and in international affairs. the abject bottom. But what kind of While LP candidates have Even so, the meaningful polit- generally been true to this tri- current slogan is ical stance is “so- adic principle, libertarians have a huge come- cially tolerant”? generally displayed no interest down, even from the Nolan or Tolerance, indeed, is not a whatever in foreign affairs, and Fritznik chart. For what, after political category at all, but so it was not surprising when all, is ”fiscally conservative”? only a personal quality in social LP founder Dave Nolan short- “Economic freedom” or ”lais- interaction. ened libertarian doctrine into a sez-faire” is admirably clear; it To describe a political person two-axis grid, with economic means getting government off as ”socially tolerant” is what ll January 1993 philosophers might call a ”cate- is a different story, since murder action quotas in every walk of gory mistake”: the mixing up is alleged to be involved.) In life: on behalf of blacks, His- ~ of two very different categories, fact, the grave threat to civil panics, the handicapped, the personal and the political, liberties now come overwhelm- women, male homosexuals, trying to add up oranges and ingly from the Left, from the lesbians, and whatever other horses. It’s like saying that sniffers after ”hate crimes” and group they care to designate as Politician X is “fiscally conser- “hate thought,”- from the fero- officially ”oppressed.” vative” (or ”lais- I cious enforcers of Let’s retire the phrase alto- sez-faire in eco- Political Correct- gether, and even return to the nomics”) and “so- ness, from those grand old capsulization that cially smiling. ’’ who would make prevailed from MacBride to Ron Or to say that ogling a sex crime Paul. Let’s retire ”fiscally conser- Politician is “fis- virtually equiva- vative” pronto. And as for the cally conservative” lent to rape. other half of the slogan, when- and ”socially In the current ever I hear the word “tolerant,” grumpy. ’ Mean- world and in the I reach for my revolver. ingless twaddle. foreseeable fu- One reason ture, then, it is that civil liberties the Right, or sec- has dropped off tions thereof, that the Libertarian is the repository Fluoridation map is because of all the political the old Cold War virtues: economic Revisit e d verities are gone freedom, civil li- by M.N.R. with the wind. berties, and even Before the end of non-intervention Yes, I confess: I’m a veteran the Cold War, in foreign affairs. anti-fluoridationist, thereby- mapping conser- In considering not for the first time-risking vatives and liber- the current slo- placing myself in the camp of als, Republicans and Democrats, gan, then, it should be clear “right-wing kooks and fanat- was simple. Conservatives (Re- that ”fiscally conservative” is a ics.” It has always been a bit of publicans) were ”good an eco- weasel phrase that means very mystery to me why left-envi- nomics,” but “bad on civil little, and is but a pale, measly ronmentalists,, who shriek in liberties.” On the other hand, shadow of its ancestor, laissez- horror at a bit of Alar on apples, liberals (Democrats) were the faire. But at least it is a political who cry “cancer!” even more reverse: ”good on civil liber- category. absurdly than the boy cried ties,” but “statist in economics.” In far worse shape is the lov- ”Wolf!”, who hate every That picture made sense ing phrase “socially tolerant,” chemical additive known to before the late 1980s, but is which can have no meaning at man, still cast their benign ap- totally obsolete now. Now that all. Since it is really meaning- proval upon fluoride, a highly there is no longer a Communist less, it must be one of these toxic and probiably carcinogenic threat, rightists are no longer a modern ”code phrases” that substance. And not only let menace to civil liberties. In con- become close to gibberish to fluoride emissions off the hook, trast to left scare tactics, there is those of us who lack the code but endorse uncritically the no one on the Right who has any book. The best I can figure, massive and continuing dump- desire for the state to break ”socially tolerant” is a code ing of fluoride into the nation’s down bedroom doors and ar- phrase for those who would water supply. rest anyone. No one has the use government to interfere in First: the generalized case for desire to bust down doors or our lives and enforce ”non- and against fluoridation of water. enforce sodomy laws. (Abortion discrimination” and affirmative The case for is dmost incredibly 12 January1993 .

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